Lecturers of the
colleges of education in Nigeria under the
umbrella body of Colleges of Education
Academic Staff Union (COEASU) on Monday
commenced a seven-day warming strike to
press home their demands from the Federal
and States Governments.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) has been on indefinite for over two
months.
Chairman of COEASU at the Adeyemi College
of Education (ACE), Ondo and the National
Vice-President of the union, Samuel
Akintunde and Smart Olugbeko, led other
members in the protest march that preceded
the commencement of the strike action
today.
They shut the main entrance into the college
and brought academic activities on campus
to a halt as they embarked on protest march.
The union leaders said COEASU embarked on
the strike action over failure of the Federal
Government to honour the gentleman
agreement it entered with the teachers' union
in 2009.
Besides, it condemned the protracted delay in
the release of the White Paper of the
Presidential Visitation panels to Federal
Colleges of Education.
COEASU argued that the delay was a
deliberate attempt to ignore the critical
issues that the panels unearthed.
It also rejected the introduction of Integrated
Personnel Payment System (IPPIS), stressing
that it was not only retrogressive, but
infringed on the very laws establishing
colleges of education and the regulatory
body; thereby capable of obstructing the
smooth running of colleges of education.
The union urged both Federal and State
governments to fund education sector
maximally given its strategic necessity as an
indispensable need in the development
strides of any nation.
Following the strike, the management of
Adeyemi College of has suspended the on-
going examinations in the school, urging the
students to remain calm until COEASU call
off the strike.
Deputy Provost of ACE, Olufemi Olajuyigbe
told journalists that the request for weaver to
allow the students finish their exams was
turned down by the local chapter of COEASU
in order not to incur the sanction of the
national body.
Olajiyigbe, however pleaded with the Federal
Government to save the education sector
from total collapse with the on-going strike
action by tertiary institutions in the country.